Girl of Lies Read Free Page B

life of her sister’s husband. Sarah herself had nearly died, and undergone major surgeries leaving her left leg scarred with what looked like huge shoe laces running up the outside of her calf up to her thigh. She spent weeks in the hospital, months in a wheelchair, and still went to physical therapy twice a week.
    That wasn’t the worst part. The worst part was the panic.
    It snuck up on her, always. She’d think about Carrie and the pregnancy, or Rachel after she was born, or her twin Jessica, and a tiny tendril of fear would work its way into her chest. Her muscles would tighten up, her breath quickening, and soon she felt as if her throat were closing and she couldn’t breathe.
    She hadn’t told anyone about the panic attacks. She hadn’t told anyone that sometimes she thought she was going to die. But moments like this, her muscles would tense, and the pain in her chest would bloom like some hideous flower, and the tears would be just below the surface ready to burst. Sometimes she felt a tingling in her fingertips and in her throat, as if she’d been electrified.
    Now, she swallowed the rock in her throat as she pulled the car up to the sidewalk just past the terminal. The cop jogged over to her, then leaned in to her.
    Sarah tried to slow her breathing.
    “All right… by the way, I’m Officer Harmon. Let me get some details from you, and we’ll find your sister, okay? First, what’s her name?”
    “Andrea Thompson.”
    “Age?”
    “Sixteen.”
    “Traveling alone?”
    “Yes… she flew in on, um… American Airlines flight 3663 from Madrid.”
    “Spain?”
    “Yes…”
    “Why was she traveling alone?”
    “She lives there with our grandmother… she flew in because our niece is sick… and may need bone marrow transplants. We’re all being tested.”
    The cop nodded. “I see. Description?”
    “Um… I haven’t seen her in a few months.” She felt a sharp pain in her chest as she said the words. The last time she’d seen Andrea, Sarah was still in the hospital, out of her mind with grief and morphine. “She’s um… tall. Six feet. Dark brown hair. Green eyes. Not sure what she’s wearing.”
    “All right. And she definitely got off the plane from Madrid.”
    “You saw the text,” she replied.
    Officer Harmon grimaced. “Yeah. All right, hold still, I’m calling this in. The airport will page her, and we’ll alert TSA and the police to look out for her. She’s in the airport somewhere, all right? She’s probably in the bathroom or something, and you guys will get a big laugh out of this in a few minutes. You got a picture of your sister? On your phone?”
    Sarah nodded, trying to contain the panicky feeling bubbling up in her chest. She flipped through her photos as quickly as she could, but she couldn’t find any recent pictures of Andrea. Wait. She went online. Andrea had updated her profile picture just a few days ago.
    “I’ve got it.”
    “Can you text that to me?” Officer Harmon gave her the number.
    A moment later, Harmon stepped away and began speaking rapidly into the microphone at his shoulder. She barely heard the words through the rushing sound in her ears. “White female… sixteen years old… unaccompanied minor… did not meet sister at ground transportation…”
    Sarah stared at the steering wheel. Her chest was twisting tighter and tighter, so much that she felt a sharp pain in her sternum. She put a fist to her chest, trying to breathe.
    “You all right, miss?”
    She tried to answer, but couldn’t, just nodded her head, tears welling up. In her head, the thoughts kept running through her mind. Please be okay. Please be okay. Don’t let her be hurt too.
    Hands shaking, she picked up her phone and sent another text message to Andrea.
    Call. Me. Please.
    No reply.
    Flashes of her hospitalization ran through her mind. The bizarre dreams she’d had of walking through the ghostly hospital with Ray. Waking up to find her leg cut open from ankle to thigh,